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| Liz Maas |
Get your banana peels and sticky swords ready!
01.06.11 - 11:00 PM
For most of the game's development, there were little to no details on The Last Story's multiplayer options. All we knew was that there was a co-op and a competitive online mode, each supporting up to six players. Mistwalker also only confirmed recently that you could select your The Last Story character of choice, and that you wouldn't be stuck with just Elza.
This week's issue of Famitsu finally got into more detail on each mode. Competitive mode, or versus, has you and other players duke it out against each other as the name suggests. You and the other players will be on an even keel, in other words your in-game stats and skills are meaningless here. In versus, not only can you choose from any of his allies, you can also choose others in the game, such as a member of the Gurug race. Also of player's choice is the stage, which is important since as we mentioned, characters can attack or cast spells on the environment around them.
You will also gain points from defeating your opponents, and lose them if you die (you will just be re-spawned, but with less points). The winner at the end of the timed battle (five minutes) is the player with the most points. At the end you'll all receive rewards such as weapons, items, and paint for your armour) depending on your ranking. You'll also get a title mark, and the current points leader is indicated with a crown.
Just like in story mode, you can use items such as banana peels to gain an advantage. You can also use a sticky sword which slows the opponent down as well as deals damage, explosive arrows which can be used with Elza's bow gun, and a 'Inishie no Katamari' which temporarily raises your defense. Apparently you can also split up into teams (such as two teams of three) ...but Mistwalker didn't really expand on this.
Co-op mode is known as Raid mode. Here, your in-game stats and equipment DO matter. Here, you can only choose from Elza or any member of his mercenary crew. Two of the beasts are Kraken and Atar, with Kraken looking like something of an octopus and Atar having many wings and being often in flight. After the battle, your party will get an item related to the beast - like Kraken's Foot, for example. Perhaps it makes for a good stew?
In both modes, you and other players will choose their characters and prepare in lobbies beforehand. You can choose to play with random players, or your friends. Finally, to chat, you can choose from pre-set messages either from the game's story mode, or messages specific to the multiplayer modes.
The Last Story for the Wii will be out in Japan on january 27th. For more on the title, check out our gallery and read the game's preview below.
